Fearful American University students go into hiding

Students at the private American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) – once seen as an elite academic institution in Kabul – say they are having to remain in hiding in Afghanistan months after the abrupt suspension of studies at the university, with the promised relocation of AUAF campus to Doha in Qatar stalled.

The evacuation of AUAF students began after the Taliban takeover in August 2021 as part of the general evacuation for AUAF and other United States-affiliated organisations under a deal agreed between the US and the Taliban, and continued after US military staff and officials had left, but has now stalled.

The university has been operating online from Qatar since the announcement of the relocation in October, but it did not respond to requests this week from University World News for more information on its current operation.

The transfer from third countries to Qatar of those students who have already left Afghanistan has slowed to a snail’s pace, with some saying Qatar is slow at providing visas. Although some online classes continue, internet access is a problem in Afghanistan and AUAF has not yet been able to return to normal academic activities or move out all the students and staff, students said.

An AUAF student in Kabul, who wished not to be named due to security concerns, told University World News many current and former AUAF students are fearful of being captured by the Taliban due to their links with the US-funded institution and are also grappling for survival as Afghanistan faces a grave economic crisis.

“The Taliban call us ‘infidel wolves’ in sheep’s skin! They wrote this on the walls of the campus [at Darulaman Road in Kabul] the day they captured Kabul,” he said.

Others are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place. “It is impossible to hide our identity because of our social media accounts, all the data on our mobile phones, computers and credentials,” another AUAF student said, adding that Taliban forces at checkpoints sniff through everyone’s mobile phones.

After weeks of uncertainty following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, an agreement was signed in October 2021 between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Fund for Development and the university at a lavish ceremony in Washington DC attended by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former US first lady Laura Bush, and Qatar’s ambassador to the US, Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani.

Al Thani announced that the main AUAF campus would relocate to Doha.

At the time it was said that the deal would allow Afghan students to continue their education without “barriers and fear”.

But another AUAF student waiting for months in Islamabad, Pakistan, said by phone that frustration was mounting among the university’s students in Afghanistan and abroad.

“Many of the students got evacuated [from Afghanistan] but around 370-plus students are still left at the mercy of the Taliban in Kabul. These students are mentally in a very bad condition,” he said.

“Those in Afghanistan cannot go outside [their home] because at every security checkpoint the Taliban check people’s mobile phones and we students are connected through WhatsApp groups or emails [with the AUAF].

“When I asked our university [AUAF] administration why we are not being evacuated to Qatar, they say the country [Qatar] is not issuing visas and their bureaucracy is very slow,” the AUAF business school student said.

Agreement with Qatar

The Qatar Foundation said in December that the students from Afghanistan temporarily evacuated to Qatar would continue their learning journey in Doha, through a ‘strategic agreement’ between the Qatar Fund for Development, the Qatar Foundation and AUAF. There was no mention of those still stranded in Kabul or elsewhere.

“Over the next two years, students from the university, faculty and staff will be temporarily hosted at Qatar Foundation’s Education City in order to continue their regular studies at AUAF, with all funding being provided by the Qatar Fund for Development in a move that reflects Qatar’s ongoing commitment to providing access to quality education,” the foundation said in a statement posted on its website last year.

Education City is home to multiple local and international universities, research and innovation centres, and community facilities. AUAF students were promised accommodation and classroom space so they could continue to learn in a safe, diverse and multicultural environment, through a blended learning approach. They are being taught online by AUAF staff in Qatar.

At least 100 students were expected to be evacuated to the relocated campus in 2021 and the rest in 2022, but this timetable has not been adhered to, and no AUAF students left Afghanistan in 2021 after the announcement and none so far this year.

A spokesperson for Qatar Foundation (QF) told University World News this week that “QF is working with its partners in collaboration to bring the AUAF students, faculty and staff to Qatar as soon as possible”.

“We are very pleased to be able to host the AUAF at Education City. As part of our agreement with Qatar Foundation, Qatar Fund for Development and the American University of Afghanistan, QF will support the continued education of up to 200 of the university’s students over a two-year period, all of whom will reside and study in Doha to ensure they can continue their education in a safe environment.

“As part of the agreement, QF will provide the students with accommodation, classroom space and access to services, (eg, healthcare, career guidance) and activities (sports and groups) on offer to students throughout Education City.”

Suggestion to convene in Pakistan

The Taliban is not operating a blanket ban on leaving the country but there are so many restrictions visible and invisible that it is almost impossible.

The Qatari agreement does not appear to go beyond a commitment to taking students who have already left Afghanistan, but talks among Qatari, US and Taliban officials are ongoing and no one is sure if evacuation might resume from Kabul or if it could be done through a second country, in most cases Pakistan.

AUAF students plan to send another joint letter to the AUAF president, Ian Bickford, about the possible relocation of AUAF students from Afghanistan to Pakistan, “...because the Taliban has banned female students from traveling to another country if they don’t have a ‘maharam’ [male companion], so we suggest at least evacuate the students to Pakistan because the female students might manage the cost of the visa and studies in Pakistan, and then from Pakistan evacuate to Qatar.”

Former AUAF president Kenneth Holland told University World News he was continuing in his personal capacity to help some AUAF students obtain scholarships from the Institute of International Education.

“Six of them, I think, are now studying in the United States. A few more are in Pakistan waiting for a student visa interview at the US embassy in Islamabad.

“One, Masouma Tajik, is in Warsaw, Poland, trying to regularise her status since she fled to Poland from Kyiv, Ukraine, where she had been evacuated from Kabul.

“Two of them, I believe, are at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. They tell me they hear shelling from Iran,” Holland said, indicating that many of the university’s students had become scattered and not necessarily to safe countries.

Academic sources at AUAF say the university has limited funds and cannot evacuate any more staff or students from Afghanistan. Until this situation clears, AUAF students say they will remain in hiding.

Current AUAF President Ian Bickford did not respond to a request for comment.